254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



remarked that these vain animals more readily attack ragged creat- 

 ures, especially if they dwell where they are unaccustomed to the 

 sight of misery. 



6. Acts or Offense committed by Animals undeb the Influ- 

 ence of the Social Instincts. Such social instincts as attachment 

 and reverence can not be found among all animals. They evidently 

 can not exist among animals which live isolated, or among those which 

 mate only temporarily. It is otherwise, however, with those that 

 live together, and between these a real marriage is established. So, 

 when several couples or families have a common habitation, elevated 

 social bonds are produced, quite comparable to those which are estab- 

 lished in human societies. Examples will not be wanting, if we look 

 at the bees and the ants, or at the republic of the rabbits. The idea 

 of property, says Georges Leroy, certainly exists among rabbits ; old 

 age and fraternity are much respected by them. 



Doves, turtle-doves, the roe, the chamois, and the mole can not 

 support widowhood, and death generally follows the loss or absence of 

 one of a pair of them. Some curious stories are told of the conjugal 

 customs of storks. The males seem to be very jealous, and sometimes 

 put to death an unfaithful companion and her betrayer. The inhabit- 

 ants of Smyrna, who are well acquainted with the conjugal suscepti- 

 bility of the male stork, amuse themselves by putting hens' eggs into 

 the nests of these birds. The male becomes very angry at the sight 

 of this unusual product, and, with the aid of other storks, tears his 

 companion to pieces. There is certainly no need of calling up the 

 numerous facts that show that domestication has, in certain animals, 

 dogs, for example, developed these social instincts into a most touch- 

 ing devotion. 



It seems to us that the review we have just made embraces a suffi- 

 ciently large number of facts to permit us to establish an almost com- 

 plete parallel between the criminal actions of men and those of animals. 

 The analogy would have been closer if we had cited examples of tricks 

 to show what combinations or means are at the disposition of an animal 

 when it is seeking to accomplish its purposes. We can not, how- 

 ever, help remarking that there are authentic cases of simulation or 

 deception which animals have worked out to save themselves from 

 labor or to procure some advantage. A military surgeon tells of a 

 horse which was accustomed to pretend to be lame on the days when 

 the horses were drilled, in order to avoid that duty. Coste mentions 

 a dog which, in the winter, when he found his comrades lying around 

 the fire in such a way as to prevent his getting near to it, would make 

 a great noise in the yard ; at this the other dogs would run out, while 

 he would slip into the house and, securing a good place for himself, 

 leave his comrades to bark as long as they pleased. He tried this trick 

 quite often, and always succeeded in it, for the other dogs had not 

 intelligence enough to find it out. 



